Language Lessons
by Zorua Illusion
Summary: Between Hiccup's curiosity and Toothless's intelligence, it was bound to happen sometime. They exchange languages. Somehow, this surprises people.


This was, in all honesty, one of the hardest things Hiccup had ever done.

He was teaching his dragon to write.

Let me explain.

It all started quite some time ago when Hiccup asked Toothless on one of their… calmer flights "Do dragons have a language?"

Toothless bobbed his head, unable to do much else without, you know, _crashing_, so Hiccup stayed quiet, adjusting the tail as necessary. Once they landed again, somewhere within the forest of Berk, far away from the hustle and bustle of the village and other dragon riders, Toothless gazes at Hiccup in an expectant way.

"So dragons do have a language."

Toothless nodded once more.

"Could you teach it to me?"

Toothless gazes at his human before shrugging and nodding his head, Hiccup somehow getting a detailed answer.

_Maybe. I'll try._

And so it happened. Hiccup and Toothless would teach at the Dragon Academy before heading off into the woods where Toothless would point out an object, say its name in Dragonese, and spend the next hour or so correcting Hiccup on pronunciation. Then they'd move on. Hiccup, in turn, would inform Toothless of words he wasn't sure of, such as singing, mostly by demonstration.

(Hiccup was rather good at singing. He told Toothless he wasn't allowed to tell anyone. The dragon rolled his eyes. _Tell who? You're the only one who understands me,_ Toothless got across in half sentences and gesturing. Hiccup only looked very seriously at the Night Fury before saying, quite simply, "Dragons". Toothless immediately started teaching Hiccup the word in Dragonese, somehow forgetting it in the first few lessons.)

Hiccup ran out of words long before Toothless did. The lessons continued, though Hiccup felt vaguely guilty.

Here was his best friend, using time he could've spent doing… well, anything else, teaching Hiccup his language at the human's request, and the human didn't have anything to give back to him. Hiccup felt as if he should give something back, but he wasn't quite sure what until his eyes strayed over to the dirt drawings from so long ago. They were mostly destroyed (time tends to do that), but some of the lines remained intact. And Hiccup got an idea.

He sprung the flash of genius on his friend the next day, after his lesson in Dragonese. "Why don't I teach you to write?"

And Toothless just sort of stared at him. Hiccup was pretty sure that this was the "that is a stupid idea and why you suggested it I don't know" look. He's gotten it a few times, a more memorable one being when he thought a steering system involving a fishing pole with a fish still on it was a good idea. (Luckily, Toothless got that idea out of his rider.)

But he also saw a hint of promise, so he pushed further. "C'mon, bud, you were able to draw me in the dirt, I don't see how runes would deter you."

And that's how Dragonese lessons became language lessons.

The first few attempts were somewhat successful, Toothless taking up another sapling in his mouth and attempting to recreate what Hiccup wrote.

Note the word "attempting". While he did manage it, the "handwriting" so to speak was befitting of Hiccup's middle name.

"Well, it's better than mine when I started." Hiccup frowned, knowing that the papers to prove it were burned long ago, but whether it was him who did it or his father he can't really remember. All he knows is that they were eliminated because he wrote them with his left hand.

Toothless nudged his rider, seeing the expression on his face and knowing it wasn't good.

"It's okay; it was a long time ago." That didn't reassure Toothless at all, but he knew better than to push his hatchling, who wasn't really much of a hatchling anymore (or in the first place; after all, Toothless is the same age).

And so the lesson continued, eventually with Toothless putting down the sapling and looking at his work before shifting his eyes to his hatchling.

_This isn't working,_ Toothless said, Hiccup knowing enough Dragonese now to translate.

"We've still got nineteen more runes to get through," Hiccup replied, though it was distracted.

Toothless shrugged before and idea came to him. He tried using his front teeth to write the symbols.

While he could do so with impressive accuracy, he ended up making multiples of one rune and a mouthful of dirt for his troubles, causing the Night Fury to sneeze and rinse out his mouth.

But the action sent Hiccup's mind whirling, the gears turning in his head as he gazed at his dragon.

"That's it!" he yelled, startling Toothless. The dragon's head whipped around, water droplets going everywhere.

"It's called 'handwriting' because we use our hands to write! So maybe that's what you should do!" Hiccup explained.

_I don't have fingers, _Toothless grumbled with an "I am so not impressed" look on his face.

"No. But you have claws."

An "I can't believe I didn't think of that" look sent Hiccup reeling with laughter. It wasn't often he saw his dragon flabbergasted.

_Yeah, yeah, make fun of the_- here, a yipping growl, followed by a roar that Hiccup didn't recognize –_that can blast you to pieces._

"Was that the translation for 'Night Fury'?" Hiccup was entranced.

_Something like that._

Hiccup didn't push. He knew better than to do so when that tone was used.

And with that, Toothless recreated the runes he had already learned by scratching them into the ground.

And the lessons continued, Toothless getting onto some of the trickier parts of a language that was only spoken (while all dragons were smart enough to write, why would they want to? Their memories were long and lives longer still, and so their history was never lost).

Hiccup moved on, giving Toothless his own grammar lessons. Vikings didn't write much, but they did have records to keep, books to be written, and finances to balance. Eventually, it dissolved into basic math expressions just so that way Hiccup could get the meaning of the symbols across. Toothless already knew how to solve most of these (he's a dragon, physics and aerodynamics are pretty important when you're flying), but writing the answer was a bit harder when he had to translate into another language. But Hiccup was a good teacher, and eventually, Toothless was able to help out his human with his inventions, understanding force and momentum and gravity.

Toothless continued teaching Hiccup how to speak the dragon's language, sometimes writing out parts of the lesson.

"Constant practice helps you remember things. I've probably forgotten more about math than most people on this island will ever learn," Hiccup shrugged when Toothless inquired as to why he was teaching Hiccup grammar through grammar.

And all was well, for awhile. Hiccup understood dragons and dragons understood him, allowing his to get to the root of the problem far faster. Toothless always laughed at how confused the villagers were when Hiccup spoke in barks and yips and growls to their dragons, who were now able to provide information and, usually, a cure for whatever upset them. So they ignored it, thinking it was just another thing that made Hiccup, well, Hiccup.

As was the curse of being fluent in another language, sometimes slipping into to describe something became inevitable. That happened to Hiccup so many times, even Fishlegs lost count. One moment, he'd be speaking in his language, then he'd cut to something in Dragonese before continuing on in the human's tongue.

His friends would fall silent and stop in their tracks. He'd walk forward a step or two before noticing and blushing. Then they'd laugh and tease him, he'd cut back with a sarcastic remark, and all was well again.

Until the poor lad had to give speeches. As the son of the chief and hero of Berk, he was now expected to give such speeches. He wasn't bad at public speaking; after all, he's done it a few times before. He just prefers _showing_ rather than _telling_, which, really, you can't do when you're giving what's basically a large pep talk. Which he had to do once, gathering the excess warriors while Stoick helped with the preparations.

One of the other tribes had decided that no, they didn't like Berk being at peace with the dragons, and decided to march on their shores. Peace was in progress on the other tribes' islands, so they couldn't spare anything, though they promised to help Berk afterwards. It was good enough for Stoick.

So there they were, preparing for war, and Hiccup wasn't scared. Oh no.

He was flipping _terrified._ Killing a giant, singular dragon is different than fighting off hundreds of humans. His tribe looked at him, not expectantly, but with a slight amount of hope. Toothless stood next to him, not the kitten he usually was, but the dragon he is. All of him was clean, from his scales down to his tack. His eyes weren't round, but they weren't slits… yet. He truly lived up to his name of Night Fury.

Hiccup had donned his own armor that he had made for himself. Light and comfortable, the padded leather wouldn't do much for extra protection but he wasn't about to weight himself or Toothless down with mail. They were sky warriors, and they would fit into their own surroundings, consequences be damned.

He was terrified and nervous but hid it well. He began to speak, volume rising in confidence as the speech went on in his language, but the last sentence was accidently roared.

The Vikings looked shocked for a second, and Hiccup was frozen solid before Toothless roared the same way. The rest of the population, dragon and Viking alike, roared as well.

_For our home!_ And Hiccup swung himself into the saddle, hooked their prosthetics together, and from there, took off to lead the fleet that would meet the army.

It was a short battle. While the tribe knew about the peace, they were unaware of how fiercely protective the dragons were of their homes and people, even the tiny Terrible Terrors. They didn't know how comfortable the Vikings were fighting from dragons.

And they certainly didn't see the Night Fury coming until it was far, far too late, three of their ten ships already set aflame by the distinguishable blasts. Their warriors were more equipped for land and sea battles, not ones in the air. While they did have catapults and arrows, there were just too many dragons and not enough ammunition. They ran out quickly, and it probably didn't help that many quivers were snatched by the Terrible Terrors, the Gronkles eating up the catapult ammo and using it as their own.

Then Hiccup landed on the last remaining ship, the riders with water dragons surrounding the lead, fire sword out and the Night Fury not living up to his name of "Toothless".

The leader surrendered. He had been outmatched, outsmarted by a _hiccup._ He said as much.

Toothless let out a grunting snort that Hiccup had never heard before. He was confused but hid it, not wanting the tribesmen to decide that even though their leader had surrendered, they wouldn't.

The water dragons took the prisoners to Berk, where Stoick would deal with them. Hiccup and Toothless were exhausted and were about to march off to bed when one of the men shouted something about them using "brainless, stupid beasts" as mounts and it being an unfair battle.

Hiccup retorted, saying that the dragons were far more intelligent than the ones who had decided to fight giant, fire breathing, fanged, and clawed beings.

Toothless retorted in his own way, scratching out n the dirt "We're more intelligent than you think".

He carried Hiccup to the house where the boy curled up in Toothless's wings at the dragon's request, afraid that one of the prisoners would break loose and try to kill the boy.

It shouldn't have been Hiccup he was worried about, but he's Toothless. His hatchling is always first.

One prisoner did escape and somehow found his way into Hiccup's room. Raising the dagger he had used to free himself, he looked at the slumbering dragon who had taken away their victory. If either occupants of the room had been awake, they would've realized that a very similar position had occurred between the two years ago.

He didn't expect a flame sword to block his strike as the dagger came down. He didn't expect the little runt without proper armor to tackle him, which knocked him flat on his back. He didn't expect the boy to expertly pluck the dagger from his fingers, and he certainly didn't expect a bola wrapped around him from a shield that the now very much awake dragon had tossed from a display area to his rider.

"Attempt to harm any dragon again and I'll make sure you wish that you would die." The voice was threatening without having the tone. It was remarkably flat and dull, but they eyes… the eyes promised truth behind the words.

He looked to the Night Fury and saw utter indifference towards him. The intruder gulped, suddenly very aware that should the rider permit it, the beast would not hesitate in killing him. He was also very, very aware of the flames licking close to his face and throat before that was replaced with his own dagger.

"March," was the order given and followed.

Hiccup pushed the man down in front of Stoick and the leader, who were arguing.

"Next time you have some assassin," Hiccup spat the words, "try to kill me or Toothless, make sure that he doesn't-" here, a rippling growl came from Hiccup's throat before the human translated "-gloat over his prize. Dragons don't take too kindly to either of us being injured, and I know that neither of us wants to find out what would happen if we were killed."

And Hiccup and Toothless stalked off, releasing the fear they held for each other in the safety of their own home.

Stoick would follow a few hours later, wondering just how far either of them would go to protect the other when he remembers Toothless diving after his son into a ball of fire.

Then he knows _exactly_ how far.

Eventually, the tribe was dealt with. They banished the group that attacked and slightly punished the tribe as well, but not too harshly at Hiccup's request, because honestly he sort of expected it to happen at some point. (He didn't mention that introducing his own tribe had turned out almost as disastrously, involving him being disowned, his best friend being taken away, and a fight between a giant dragon and the loss of his left leg. No, not this time.)

And life returned to normal. Almost. A town would always behave differently after a battle, but besides the tight watch-out schedule and nightmares and people jumping at loud noises, all was well once more.

So the language lessons continued, eventually becoming more of a keep up than actual learning experience. Hiccup still slipped into Dragonese on accident, and Toothless would write out what he needed to tell other but mostly stuck with body language.

Berk had changed, but many, many things remained the same. Toothless and Hiccup were one of the few that could be sorted into both categories.

**A/N: Pretty sure I just beat Stalemate's length with this one, though not by much. Maybe 100 words or so. But here's another combination of about five different prompts my friend and I came up with. And for the record, I don't know any Dragonese, having not read the books (yet), so I do apologize for any inaccuracies. For all I know, dragons have a freaking library in the middle of the ocean full of books they've written. I still kind of want to see Hiccup learning Dragonese in the movies. Who knows? Maybe he will.**


End file.
